Systems comprising a device, such as a cartridge or cassette, that transports a tape or carrier band of consumable elements for testing bodily fluid samples offer a high degree of user comfort, because a large number of consumable elements, for example, test fields for determining glucose concentration, can be disposed on a carrier band. As a result, exchanging a band cartridge in a measuring device, which many users find troublesome, is necessary only infrequently.
A rewritable data storage medium, for example, an RFID, can be attached to such band cartridges, on which the number of unused consumable elements that remain is stored. This number can then be updated by a measuring device into which the cartridge is inserted, each time a consumable element is used. In this way, the number of consumable elements still available in a cartridge can be reliably monitored and displayed to a user when the supply is running low. Disadvantageous in this case are the costs associated with the data storage medium.
An object of the present invention is therefore that of revealing a more cost-effective method for obtaining information regarding the number of unused consumable elements of a carrier band remaining in the supply thereof, so that a user will not be surprised by the need to replace a band cartridge.